One of the little "handmade" things I decided I wanted to do for this wedding was boxes. I'm big on "memory boxes"...both me & Anthony have one that we keep special little things from our relationship in. I had started looking around on Pinterest & decided that I wanted to make a box for each of my bridesmaids. After I painted three, I had to go back to Hobby Lobby to get a fourth (they only had three the first time I went). As I was looking at these plain boxes, I decided that I wanted one for myself as well. (I'm hoping to get the bridesmaids' boxes to them within the next week or two, then make the official announcement!) I already have some things collected from planning trips I've been on, inspirations for the decor, things I'm saving to use in some way during the wedding, etc. Above you can see the painted box (outside: left, inside: right) & below is some of the things that I have already put in it (left) & a picture of the bottom, which is probably my favorite poem in the entire world..."The Good Morrow" by John Donne (right):
One of my favorite things in the box is the card Anthony's mom gave us when we got engaged. The outside said "Congratulations on your engagement--and one little bit of advice..." & the inside says "Ignore the advice. Love knows the way. So happy for you!" Man, I wish I could just shove this in everyone's faces when they mention how young I am. (If you're wondering what brought this on...among other things...a certain nosey, condescending professor just can't leave it alone). I could go on & on about how we've known each other for 4 years, dated 3 & 1/2, both serve in our church, both have jobs, are both going to graduate college (he'll graduate before we're married), have the support of both our families (most of them at least...), have a plan & will be financially stable. Yes, things will probably be hard, but what marriage isn't? We have a lot of things going for us & some things working against us, that's how I think most marriages are. What counts is how much you love each other (as in, the verb choose to love, not just the butterfly emotion), how prepared you are for the rough patches & how hard you're willing to work to get through them. It's just so annoying to me that people who don't even know us (or even people who do) are so doubtful of our relationship making it...or are just mean or judgemental. I dealt with the same thing in high school & after with people telling us we would never last. Well, here we are. I don't "need" people to agree with what I'm doing, but it sure would be nice & make things much less stressful if people could either get on board or at least keep their negative opinions to themselves...it's not like anything they say will change my mind. Okay, stepping off the soap-box now...
While I was at Hobby Lobby in search of boxes, I noticed some sales & other things going on, so I picked up a few more things for our wedding decorations. I didn't take a picture with me of all the blue-tinted glassware that I've gotten from them, but one day I'll just have to set it all out & get a photograph of it. There's so much. (I mean, seriously, how can you pass up 50% off when you know you'll use it in both your wedding & your future home?!) But...I did buy this really precious vintage-looking aqua mirror that I can't wait to have a "getting ready" picture in. I also took a couple pics of all the turquoise/red candles, even though I didn't buy any of them. Just for inspiration :)
I also picked up a huge teal feather that I wanted to keep in the box I made, but it was too big & I didn't want to bend it. Instead, I stuck it in the collage board that's hanging on my bedroom wall in my apartment. I think it'll make a cute vintage-y prop for some of our wedding pictures!
Last but not least, I decided that I needed to procrastinate even further last night while on Pinterest. I found this relationship suggestion called a "hint box." It's a great way to tell your boyfriend/fiance/husband gifts or surprises that you would like, chores you would appreciate done, or dates & outings you'd like to go on without coming right out & saying it. I think that with this wedding-planning thing, we've been focusing less on each other, our relationship & the actual marriage & more on things that we have to get done or just the wedding...at least I know I have. I wanted a way to get back to "us." I've also felt like I've been doing a lot more work (less two-way effort) because I'm pretty much planning, organizing, doing & making everything solo, (& Anthony can't really help much with a lot of that) so I wanted to think of some little things that he could do to take some of the stress off me and both bear it equally. Enter hint box. You make this thing to put ideas that you have into (that way, when you think of something you can just write it down on a piece of paper, fold it up & put it in). When he wants to do something sweet for you, he can just pull something out of the hint box & do that. It's a win-win. He'll feel like he selected/planned something & you won't feel like you had to tell him exactly what to do every time. Well, I didn't have a box, so I grabbed a jar/cannister that some paint brushes came in. I cleaned it off & wrote a little bit on it. Then, I spent a good hour thinking of heartfelt things that I would really love & appreciate, most of them free or very inexpensive. Some are bigger & would take more planning, but you've gotta have a few things like that, at least the way I see it :)
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